2.4 - Viscaria in the lab

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Phoenix - Rise from the A
1

(Fixer, as you designed the lab and the critters in it, I think it falls on you to either SG this yourself, or hand off the duty to someone else)

Viscaria adjusts the tension on the turning screw, and steps back from the makeshift distillation apparatus. She frowns, reminding herself once again that her forge-companions will be able to give her better materials to work with by the end of the season. Still, the materials here would do for a basic vis-extraction process. Perhaps she shouldn't let it run on its own, the covenant seems sorely lacking in vis.

She turns, intending to pick up the small silver ring she planned to store the vis in, and leaps back in horror as she sees a small worm that appears to be eating her ring.

She pulls a silver rod from her sleeve, points it grandly at the creature and shouts "Crystal Dart!"

(OOC: MuTe 10, Muto 5 + Te 8 + Te Affinity 3 + Aura 5 + W&G 2 + simple die roll 8 = 31, which should beat the buggers Might, if it has any)

She walks over to the wooden table, and picks it up with a pair of wooden tongs, compliments of the previous owner. Dangling the remains (?) of the worm, she wonders to herself aloud, "What are you?"

Then, remembering herself, she puts it down, takes her necklace off, and places The Impassive Face against the wall. If the stone appears to be too well crafted to respond (the Stone Tell of the Mind That Sits only affects natural stone), then she grabs the tongs-with-worm in one hand, and heads out into the underground to find somewhere suitable but nearby.

Trying the necklace again, she waves the worm-corpse in front of the cave wall and asks, "What is this?"

(OOC: I was going to make this her seasonal activity thread, but I don't know how to do what I want -- study the worms and figure out what to do about them. I was thinking that might count as Investigating Enchantment, or maybe even Refining the lab.)

2

Sure, no problem! :smiley:

(For the record, this ain't 4th Ed, you've got to subtract the spell's level, and add penetration, alhtough it doesn't matter here: They have magic might 01, so...)
The dart is of near-equal size to the worm, and impacts it with such force that it is cut into 2 bits, who wriggle a few seconds on the ground. It certainly seems dead enough.

Viscaria will quickly notices that all equiment is either wooden, glassware, or inside containers for protection. For those few parts that must have metal and can't be protected, stone was used instead, adjusted by low-level magics.

The walls are too well crafted (Superior Construction virtue) for viscaria's talisman to have any effect :frowning: For the moment, they seem perfectly normal... Until, impossibly, another worm's head appear to penibly extract itself from the wall near viscaria's brooch, visibly aiming for it.

(The worms are a free flaw, so they aren't supposed to be a great hindrance at all, so you're mostly safe, and won't have them crawling until you put a lot of metal dangling before them. I mostly intended them to help you with Terram. IMO, finding some uses with them really shouldn't take you a season, so I'll count that as a freebie to whatever lab activity you'll do: Refining the lab is fine, but you don't have to lose time Investigating them)

3

(They eat metal, she's a silversmith (!!). They're terram-related creatures, she is a Spirit of Terram, and is terrifying to such creatures. She also has a "Control Earth Creatures" spell, and a lab text to rarefy earth elementals. They're of supreme interest to her. Presumably, the don't live long enough for it to be worth her while to tame them, but she might make a magic item to do the job for her. If you wanted to just give out throw-away ideas, come up with less interesting ones!)

Also, OOC: ~pouts~ I wanted to talk to a terrified cave mouth with my pretty necklace!

Gah. All my various ideas for what to do need us to finish finding the gorram vis first!

4

Well, I'm happy that you like my ideas, especially as I feel pretty dry for them.
But yeah, of course, I threw them in for terram, I just never thought you'd give them more than a sideway glance. I'm really happy if we can tell something, though :smiley:

As for vis, well, it sure will come soon, I hope. If we don't bring Hiems Tower on it first...